Former captain Michael Vaughan has hailed the appointment of Paul Collingwood to the England coaching staff.

The Durham skipper has been named as assistant to limited overs coach Ashley Giles for the upcoming tour of the Caribbean and the ICC World Twenty20 which follows in Bangladesh.

England will be hoping for a successful spring as they look to bounce back from a winter which saw a disastrous tour of Australia result in the exit of head coach Andy Flower and the recent ending of Kevin Pietersen's international career.

Collingwood will return to duty with the county champions when England return from Bangladesh but Vaughan, who played alongside the 37-year-old in the national set-up, believes he could prove an asset to whoever is named as Flower's replacement.

"Appointing Paul Collingwood as assistant coach to Ashley Giles for the one-day series in the West Indies and the World T20 in Bangladesh is a positive step," he wrote in the Daily Telegraph.

"At the moment it is only a temporary appointment but I am certain that whoever takes over from Andy Flower as England's new team director will want Collingwood by his side.

"English cricket is in a dark place and I cannot think of a better character to help the recovery.

"He is a good person, has a very sharp cricket brain and is exactly what English cricket needs at the moment.

"Colly loves cricket, he feeds off it, but he does not take things too seriously and has a good sense of humour, which helps him to keep things in perspective.

"He has been through plenty of good times, winning Ashes series and the World T20, but he also knows what it is like to be in the depths of despair. When I was England captain there were times when Colly struggled for form and we had long chats about how he was feeling.

"But he is a fighter and a scrapper and he would always come out the other side a better player. He has come through some tough tests of character, so his appointment as assistant to Giles is the right decision by England."